Snap fastener assembly and decorative part for the same



Sept. 21, 1965 E. A. KNOWLTON 3,206,318

SNAP FASTENER ASSEMBLY AND DECORATIVE PART FOR THE SAME Filed March 15,1963 Inveni'oz' Edward .H. Knowlion,

United States Patent 3,206,818 SNAP FASTENER ASSEMBLY AND DECORATIVEPART FOR THE SAME Edward A. Knowlton, Winchester, Mass., assignor toUnited-Carr Incorporated, a corporation of Delaware Filed Mar. 15, 1963,Ser. No. 265,513 Z'Claims. (Cl. 24-208) This invention is directed to afastener assembly and more particularly to an assembly that includes asupporting material having a snap fastener socket or stud part heatsealed to an undersurface thereof and a decorative part also heat sealedto the uppersurface of the support and in alignment with the snapfastener part, and also the decorative part, per se.

An object ,of the invention is to provide a snap fastener installationwhich includes a decorative part heat sealed to a support over a snapfastener member and a decorative part having a coating of heat sealableplastic material such as vinyl which is adapted to be bonded bydielectric heat sealing without distorting the decorative part.

Another object of the invention is to provide a decorative part heatsealable to a supporting material and for use in conjunction with orwithout a snap fastener part also heat sealed to the supportingmaterial.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a portion of an article .of commerce such asthe front opening of a plastic raincoat, showing the decorative part ofthe invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged section taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view of an improved decorative part;

FIG. 4 is an edge view of the part shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a section of the decorative part showing the bottom surfacewith a recess therein;

FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 showing the primer coating applied tothe undersurface of the decorative part;

FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6 with the heat sealable material heldin place by the primer material;

FIG. 8 is an edge view of a modified form of decorative part, withoutthe recess in the bottom of the decorative part; and

FIG. 9 is a section .of an installation of the decorative part shown inFIG. 8 attached to a supporting material.

Heat sealing of buttons or snap fastener studs or snap fastener socketsto a support is known to be old in the art. However, the idea of heatsealing a decorative part to a support over a snap fastener stud .orsocket is be lieved to be new, especially where it is desirable to dressup an article of commerce, such as a vinyl raincoat, by the use of afancy so-called mother-of-pearl part of plastic or other suitablematerial such as now used in the trade with metal snap fasteners.

The invention selected for illustration and description relates to anassembly, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, which includes a support havingoverlapping portions 1 and 2 to provide an opening such as the frontopening of a raincoat. The raincoat material may be plastic or cloth anda plastic snap fastener stud 3 is heat sealed to the upper face of theportion 2, as shown in FIG. 2.

A plastic snap fastener socket 4, is heat sealed to the underside of theoverlapping portion 1 and the improved decorative part 5 is heat sealedto the upper exposed surface of the portion 1. The parts 4 and 5 may beheat sealed to the portion 1 as a single operation by suitable heatsealing equipment or each may be sealed by a separate operationaccording to the desires of the manufacturer of the garment.

A decorative part 5 shown in FIGS. 1-7 is formed of polyester plasticmaterial and usually has the appearance of a salt or fresh water pearl.This part 5 has a recess ice 6 in the bottom surface (FIG. 5) andpreferably a coating of bonding material 7 (preferably plastisol primermaterial) is applied over the bottom surface of the part 5 including thesurface in the recess 6 as shown in FIG. 6. Thereafter a vinyl plastisolheat sealable material 8 is applied to the underside of the part 5 tofill the recess and cover the bonding material and also have.

a shape and thickness about as shown in FIG. 7. It has been found thatan amount of plastisol material 8 thicker than just a plain thin coat isdesirable in some instances for proper heat sealing of the part to asupport. The problem that has been solved by this invention is theprovision of a decorative part of plastic or other suitable materialthat may be heat sealed in assembly with a snap fastener part to asuitable supporting material. This is accomplished because thedifference in the properties of the vinyl, and the polyester pearldecorative part is such that the vinyl material will melt and heat sealto the support, while the decorative part has a lower dielectric lossfactor and therefore does not soften enough to become misshaped.

Because the pearl does not function as an electrode the way a metallicdecorative part does the distance between the two electrodes of theattaching equipment is much greater, and hence more power (energy/time)is required. Power required to heat the vinyl to a certain temperaturein a certain time varies directly as the square of the voltage andinversely as the square of the distance between electrodes.

A decorative part 9, as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, is the same as shown inFIG. 7 except that the recess 6 has been eliminated and a plastisolcoating 10 is applied over a coat of primer 11 on the bottom surfacethereof. This construction is all that may be necessary in someinstallations and with some materials.

The decorative parts 5 or 9 may be heat sealed to a supporting material12 as shown in FIG. 9 to provide a decoration without being associatedwith a snap fastener member.

A method of applying the bonding material and the vinyl plastisol is toapply the bonding material by spraying, brushing, etc., drying thebonding material, and then applying the vinyl plastisol by dropping ameasured amount onto the dried bonding material, and thereafter curingby heat, as in a hot air oven; then, the decorative part is ready foruse at any future time.

In the case of the vinyl-backed decorative part described above, thetrick is to heat the vinyl without too much heating of the body of thedecorative part. In this case too much is any temperature which altersthe appearance of the decorative part 5. Experiments have shown that thedecorative part 5 reached a term perature of about ISO-200 F. whilefusion temperature .of the vinyl material 8 is about 350 F. An exampleof a workable combination is the difference of physical properties oftwo materials such as polyester decorative part 5 and soft vinyl 8because the polyester material has a lower dielectric loss factor thanthe vinyl material. The loss factor describes the amount .of electricalenergy which at very high frequencies used in high frequency electricheat sealing devices, is absorbed in the form of heat by the normallynon-conductive plastic materials.

While there have been illustrated and described improved embodiments ofthe invention it should be understood that the invention is best definedby the following claims.

I claim:

1. A fastener assembly comprising, in combination, a supporting materialto which a part may be heat sealed, a decorative part located at oneside of the support and heat sealed thereto by a heat sealable materialcarried at an underside of said decorative part, a snap fastener memberheat sealed to the opposite side of said support in alignment with, andsubstantially coextensive with, the decorative part, and a primermaterial between the decorative part and the heat sealable material tobond the heat sealable material in place.

2. A fastener assembly comprising in combination a supporting materialto which a part may be heat sealed, a decorative part located at oneside of said supporting material and heat sealed thereto by a heatsealable material carried at the underside of said decorative part, anda snap fastener member heat sealed to the opposite side of said supportin alignment with the decorative part, said decorative part being of amaterial having an inherent lower dielectric loss factor than the heatsealable material at the underside thereof to prevent distortion of thedecorative part during the heat sealing operation.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,020,007 11/35Wagman 156310 X 2,745,159 5/56 Jones 24213 2,956,915 10/60 Korn et a1.161265 X FOREIGN PATENTS 995,680 8/51 France.

DONLEY J. STOCKING, Primary Examiner.

2. A FASTENER ASSEMBLY COMPRISING IN COMBINATION A SUPPORTING MATERIALTO WHICH A PART MAY BE HAT SEALED, A DECORATIVE PART LOCATED AT ONE SIDEOF SAID SUPPORTING MATERIAL AND HEAT SEALED THERETO BY A HEAT SEALABLEMATERIAL CARRIED AT THE UNDERSIDE OF SAID DECORATIVE PART, AND A SNAPFASTENER MEMBER HEAT SEALED TO THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF SAID SUPPORT INALIGNMENT WITH THE DECORATIVE PART, SAID DECORATIVE PART BEING OF AMATERIAL HAING AN INHERENT LOWER DIELECTRIC LOSS FACTOR THAN THE HEATSEALABLE MATERIAL AT THE UNDERSIDE THEREOF TO PREVENTT DISORTION OF THEDECORATIVE PART DURING THE HEAT SEALING OPERATION.